Churchill, MB: Parks Canada Visitor Centre (8/3/2023)

Thursday, August 3, 2023 (continued)

Next stop: The Parks Canada Visitor Centre that is the center for the Wapusk National Park, Prince of Wales Fort National Historic Site, and York Factory National Historic Site.

Diorama: Wapusk National Park is the location of
polar bear maternity dens in its boreal forests
near the transition to Arctic tundra

A pregnant polar bear will dig or return to a maternity den in the boreal forest in October. They wait in the den until the birth of the cub[s] in December. Remaining in the dens to feed and keep the cubs warm, they will not emerge until March. The female must have enough fat to survive this period as she will not be eating. It appears that with climate change, the sea ice does not freeze or remain frozen for long enough for the bears to hunt and eat enough. If the polar bears are getting thinner, the females will be less able to sustain a pregnancy, or to feed the cub[s] enough to survive the winter.

A model of the Prince of Wales Fort

Martes americana/American Marten (this marten
fur allowed Pete to win his own Bingo prize)

Moose Hide Dress (KSS)

Beaver fur hat; the Hudson Bay Company was
established based on beaver pelt trading

Cree Bible in Syllabics

Rangifer tarandus/Caribou or Reindeer and an
outfit made of caribou skins

Model of hunting implements, with representatives of
the Dene, Cree and Inuit from left to right (KSS)

Dylan and Pete do not appear to be fazed
by the giant roaring polar bear (KSS)

The Parks Canada Visitor Centre is housed in the
Churchill Railway Station (1929-1930, with elements
of Queen Anne and Arts and Crafts styles)

Hudson Bay Railway plaque commemorates
the achievement of completing the railroad
to fulfill the dream of Prairie farmers for a
rail outlet to the sea to export their grain

This plaque relates that the railway was proposed in the 1870s
and a charter was issued in 1881. Construction did not begin
until 1911 and was postponed during World War I;
work restarted in the 1920s and was completed in 1929

The train ride is approximately 48 hours long (two days and two nights) as it covers 1697 km//1,054 miles through Manitoba. Originally the railroad and port were owned by the federal government, which sold them to an American company, OmniTrax, in 1997. In 2015, OmniTrax announced it was negotiating to sell to the First Nations based in northern Manitoba. No sale was finalized when in 2016, the port was shut down, creating an economic nightmare in Churchill. Cargo trains to bring supplies continued to run until in 2017, when flooding damaged the line. The town of Churchill was in dire straits until the port and railroad were sold to Arctic Gateway Group, a consortium of First Nations, local governments, and investors. As of 2021, the port and railroad belong to OneNorth, with community and indigenous partners. The port hopes to begin shipping again.

I was going to walk along the railroad tracks to see the Sons of Martha Monument, but there was the caution about polar bears. Our tour leader, Angèle, decided everyone should get on the bus to find it. It was a bit embarassing to cause all this trouble, but the intrepid group even trailblazed through brush to find the stone cairn monument.

Sons of Martha Monument (1928-1932)
commemorates the workers who worked and
died while building the Hudson Bay Railway

The Sons of Martha Monument was similar to those erected by Harry F McLean, a railway contractor, to commemorate his employees. However, McLean's company was not involved in building the Hudson Bay Railway. McLean was inspired by the 1907 poem of the same name by Rudyard Kipling, and the words of the poem are on the stone cairn.

Because others were curious, I will print the words of the poem here:

The Sons of Mary seldom bother, for they have inherited that good part;

But the Sons of Martha favour their Mother of the careful soul and the troubled heart.

And because she lost her temper once, and because she was rude to the Lord her Guest,

Her Sons must wait upon Mary’s Sons, world without end, reprieve, or rest.

It is their care in all the ages to take the buffet and cushion the shock.

It is their care that the gear engages; it is their care that the switches lock.

It is their care that the wheels run truly; it is their care to embark and entrain,

Tally, transport, and deliver duly the Sons of Mary by land and main.

They say to mountains, ” Be ye removèd” They say to the lesser floods ” Be dry.”

Under their rods are the rocks reprovèd – they are not afraid of that which is high.

Then do the hill tops shake to the summit – then is the bed of the deep laid bare,

That the Sons of Mary may overcome it, pleasantly sleeping and unaware.

They finger death at their gloves’ end where they piece and repiece the living wires.

He rears against the gates they tend: they feed him hungry behind their fires.

Early at dawn, ere men see clear, they stumble into his terrible stall,

And hale him forth like a haltered steer, and goad and turn him till evenfall.

To these from birth is Belief forbidden; from these till death is Relief afar.

They are concerned with matters hidden – under the earthline their altars are

The secret fountains to follow up, waters withdrawn to restore to the mouth,

And gather the floods as in a cup, and pour them again at a city’s drouth.

They do not preach that their God will rouse them a little before the nuts work loose.

They do not teach that His Pity allows them to leave their job when they damn-well choose.

As in the thronged and the lighted ways, so in the dark and the desert they stand,

Wary and watchful all their days that their brethren’s days may be long in the land.

Raise ye the stone or cleave the wood to make a path more fair or flat;

Lo, it is black already with blood some Son of Martha spilled for that!

Not as a ladder from earth to Heaven, not as a witness to any creed,

But simple service simply given to his own kind in their common need.

And the Sons of Mary smile and are blessèd – they know the angels are on their side.

They know in them is the Grace confessèd, and for them are the Mercies multiplied.

They sit at the Feet – they hear the Word – they see how truly the Promise runs.

They have cast their burden upon the Lord, and – the Lord He lays it on Martha’s Sons!

I returned to St Paul's Anglican Church to go inside ...

... to see the Lady Franklin stained glass
window (1850) that was given by Sir John
Franklin’s widow, Jane, in appreciation of all
the search efforts put forth to find her husband
and his lost Arctic expedition of 1845

Baptismal font (c 1872)

Bell Wheel (1800s) from York Factory
(York Factory was a Hudson's Bay Company
factory and settlement 200 km/124 miles
southeast of Churchill on Hudson Bay)

More pictures of the Churchill Complex:

The teen center

Swimming pool

Library

The polar bear slide

The ice rink arena

Another peek into the arena

Caribou Hall, a Scouts Canada (and Girl Guides) clubhouse

Cathedral of the Holy Canadian Martyrs and
Queen of Martyrs (Churchill is the only town
of the Diocese of Churchill that covers over
2,300,000 square km/888,035 square miles)

Vicia villosa/Winter Vetch

A nesting box on every lightpole

Under this light pole, Kent found a nest
with two "eggs," and Jeff suggested
it was from a ROCK Ptarmigan!

Next: Wapusk Sled Dogs.